Guild Wars 2

I mean since the base game was $60 for 31 areas and HoT is 5 new areas. $15 seems like the right amount for the content.

There’s now six maps in Heart of Thorns.

If you’re enjoying your original set of maps, you can stick with that and not shell out the extra money. The only time Heart of Thorns will be severely discounted is right before the launch of the next expansion, so if you bought it then you’d promptly wind up right back where you started, missing out on the newest content that people are playing because you don’t want to pay the price for it.

Xiahou Mao.9701:

There’s now six maps in Heart of Thorns.

If you’re enjoying your original set of maps, you can stick with that and not shell out the extra money. The only time Heart of Thorns will be severely discounted is right before the launch of the next expansion, so if you bought it then you’d promptly wind up right back where you started, missing out on the newest content that people are playing because you don’t want to pay the price for it.

Well the game is very boring to me now and $40-60 for HoT seems like a major rip-off considering the things I’ve heard people say about it.

Then you can find something else to do with your time. If you’ve heard bad things about the expansion, why are you even considering buying it?

How many other MMO’s have you ever played? Expansions ALWAYS cost almost as much as the core game when it came out. No expansion has ever cost a small fraction of the core game.

I don’t think they will sell HoT for $15 because now the core game is F2P, which wasn’t the case when they droped the core price to $15. Basically, at that point they said "we want a lower barrier of entry for people to try the game, so let’s make it $15. Now that barrier is “$0,” so they don’t have that concern. You get the core game for free, and HoT costs extra.

They could maybe drop the price to $15-25 for people like yourself who already own the core game, if they have the tech to do that sort of thing, but otherwise I think the price will stay high.

Now the real catch is when the next expansion comes out, because I assume it will be the same as HoT, “buy it, and fully unlock your F2P account,” so there will be people who buy it without having bought HoT. They really should have some cheaper option at least for those players to pick up HoT as well at a lower cost, and I really doubt it will be included for free.

To be honest though, I don’t have any sympathy for people who bought the base game and then won’t buy HoT for $50. Whatever price you bought the base game for, you MORE than got your money’s worth out of that purchase. They delivered a TON of content for that original $60 price tag, and I was more than happy to pay it again three years out to cover what HoT launched with, and continues to add to the game. Just drop the $50, it’s the price of a standard retail game, and you’ll be playing it ten times as long as anything else.

HoT worth more then its current price. Its gorgeous, with a lot of fun things, and get better and better with each patch.
Saying that you think only worth 15$ is really sad, you should probably go play other games, as you seen the type of person that is entitled and will only complain.

The core game went on sale for $10 after HoT was announced. But then the ruckus ensued as people bought it at that price believing it would be needed for HoT only to have ANet later proclaim that the core game would be included. They’re not likely to repeat that PR nightmare.

HoT will be included in the next expansion, however. So while it’s a bit of cutting off your nose to spite your face, you can wait another year or more, pay (fully) for the next expansion, and get HoT for free. You’ll just miss out on all the stuff that happens meanwhile and find yourself in maps that don’t have the hordes of enthusiastic players the newer ones are getting once you do finally sign on.

I can’t imagine less than 1/2 price on the official web site. Box editions in official retail or online stores might go for less during the holidays. But $15. Try two years out when the next expansion is ready to drop.

In December 2014 they had $10 sales, again in January 2015 they had $10 sales. Granted, this was prior to both F2P accounts and HOT, but the first sale that I’m aware of for the original game was 2 years after release. So, going by that timeline, if they were to put HOT on sale, you could be looking at another year.

It probably won’t, and with the LS going on right now, it’s actually worth paying money for HoT now.

SwiftFishy.2643:

I mean since the base game was $60 for 31 areas and HoT is 5 new areas. $15 seems like the right amount for the content.

So your pricing of the game is solely based on how many maps it have? Not on what content those maps have? Not on all the work that goes into designing those map, or the content those maps are filled with? Not on how many improvements something brings, or not on how much work has gone into intertwining all those branching story line that has gone from Zhaitan to lw1 up to lw2 and into HoT and now lw3, all the new elite specs, all the new quality of life improvements, improvements of fractals, the adding of raids and ALL of this for 120$ for 4 years. I am sorry, but this is a lot of crap in one very tiny and short statement, because you have no idea how much work goes into all this that you have gotten to play for 4 years for ONLY 120$. You should go check out how WoW is doing, where you pay 15$ -every- month on top of paying full core game price for each expansion.

This kind of entitled behaviour just makes my blood boil.

PyrateSilly.4710:

How many other MMO’s have you ever played? Expansions ALWAYS cost almost as much as the core game when it came out. No expansion has ever cost a small fraction of the core game.

How many have you played?

Because you’re wrong. Take for example SWTOR. The expansions are free with a sub and you only have to sub one month to get the expansion. So that’s about 13 bucks.

Also Aion didn’t charge separately for expansions.

So really, it depends on the game and to say that MMOs always charge as much for an expansion is just not true.

Of course for GW2 box sales are more important because they don’t have a subscription model and personally I find that HoT actually improved the game a lot especially with the gliding masteries and elite specs.

Now, I got HoT not too long ago because it was on sale for 20 something bucks. That was a good deal. Maybe they’ll do another deal for X-mas or something I dunno, but for me it was a good buy. I do get that not everybody is as excited about it. The maps in HoT are a bit 50/50 for me. I quite like Verdant Brink and Auric Basin but don’t like the other ones. The LS3 areas are pretty cool though.

SwiftFishy.2643:

I mean since the base game was $60 for 31 areas and HoT is 5 new areas. $15 seems like the right amount for the content.

I don’t really care how many areas, races, professions, stories or skins are in the game. I care about whether there’s enough fun stuff to do to keep me entertained. For me, US$50 was worth paying just for gliding, true auto-looting, the new fractals, and all the other stuff is excellent-tasting frosting on the cake.

There are far too many things that go into making a fun game to base price entirely on any single dimension.

Gehenna.3625:

Take for example SWTOR. The expansions are free with a sub and you only have to sub one month to get the expansion. So that’s about 13 bucks.

You seriously give SWTOR, as an example? While their recent expansion is indeed free for a subscribers (something that kept that ship from sinking once and for all), their previous expansion costed 20$ on top of their monthly subscription and all it offered was a new story you could finish in 30 minutes, one tiny new area and one new raid.

Dont get me started on their CM practise with new gear content which is based on RNG boxes that you have to pay real money to get and the chance to get only crap is much higher then to get what you actually wanted or grind endless days to buy it off their TP equivalent, where such thing, as economy is non-existant. How about being forced to pay real money again to open account wide some gear that you already paid for once? Does that sounds like fun or being anything better then what gw2 offers?
Sorry for the rant, but I couldn’t help it when you gave for an example an MMO that praise itself at the moment on single-player content and which literally drains its customers bank accounts dry if they want to enjoy its content.

There is a lot of things to consider in an MMO for person to decide for themselves if an expansion pricing is fair or not, considering gw2 model where you can literally dont pay for anything else then for the initial purchase and a new expansion when it releases I would say 50$ is a -very- good price, imo.

Its up for everyone to decide, which is fair for him when it comes to game prices, but lets not try to bend well established facts and truths to better suit our views.

SwiftFishy.2643:

I mean since the base game was $60 for 31 areas and HoT is 5 new areas. $15 seems like the right amount for the content.

Just wait for the next expansion and you get HoT for free (“…when we say Guild Wars 2 is buy-to-play, we’re only asking you to buy one thing: the current release…”), of course you then need to buy the current expansion in that time for $80.

Just wait for the next expansion and you get HoT for free (“…when we say Guild Wars 2 is buy-to-play, we’re only asking you to buy one thing: the current release…”), of course you then need to buy the current expansion in that time for $80.

Again, they never promised that HoT will come for free with the next expansion, and I actually bet that it will not. The next expansion might include some overlap from HoT, like the gliding tree, maybe the Pact Tyria stuff, etc., but I think that the bulk of HoT’s features and content, including the maps and the Elite Classes, will not be included, and if you only buy xPac 2, all you’ll get is the F2P game plus whatever maps/classes/races/etc. are new to xPac 2.

Ohoni.6057:

Just wait for the next expansion and you get HoT for free (“…when we say Guild Wars 2 is buy-to-play, we’re only asking you to buy one thing: the current release…”), of course you then need to buy the current expansion in that time for $80.

Again, they never promised that HoT will come for free with the next expansion, and I actually bet that it will not. The next expansion might include some overlap from HoT, like the gliding tree, maybe the Pact Tyria stuff, etc., but I think that the bulk of HoT’s features and content, including the maps and the Elite Classes, will not be included, and if you only buy xPac 2, all you’ll get is the F2P game plus whatever maps/classes/races/etc. are new to xPac 2.

I believe they did:

Business Model Clarification

We want to be clear about our business model for future expansions now that we are approaching our first paid expansion for Guild Wars 2. We believe that to keep the game dynamic and vibrant with a constantly growing community, it should be as easy as possible for new players to get into Guild Wars 2. For Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, we didn’t want the core game’s price to be a factor in a new player’s decision to begin playing Guild Wars 2. In the future, if we release further Guild Wars 2 expansions, we plan to offer all of the prior expansions, the core game, and the latest expansion for one single purchase price.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/pre-purchase-community-address/

I’m entirely expecting HoT to be a pack-in with the full new release.

There’s simply no percentage in dividing your player base. The reasons the core game was presented as “included with HoT” have gotten no less true and valid than they were then.

SwiftFishy.2643:

Well the game is very boring to me now

What was the point of this thread then? You’re going to buy an expansion for a game you don’t even like now? Quit your BS.

You had a half price discount for HoT just before LW3. My girlfriend moved from a free to play account to a HoT account with that discount. It was a really good deal ! They advertised it for 2 weeks as well.

They should sell a version for 15 dollars that unlocks elite specializations for pvp. That’s all I got that makes sense to me.

Gehenna.3625:

PyrateSilly.4710:

How many other MMO’s have you ever played? Expansions ALWAYS cost almost as much as the core game when it came out. No expansion has ever cost a small fraction of the core game.

How many have you played?

Actually I have played online games since the old BBS days. I have not only online gamed that long but also brought up 2 gaming sons AND now am bringing up the granddaughter to be a gamer. She loves GW2, Wizard101, table top gaming and Loot Crate. And she just finished Space Camp as Commander and had to land the shuttle. Oh by the way she is only 9.

Well seeing as they may be releasing another DLC expansion next year, could be Oct Nov.

But then you might as well save it to buy the 2nd DLC expansion which will include HoT for free.

Gehenna.3625:

PyrateSilly.4710:

How many other MMO’s have you ever played? Expansions ALWAYS cost almost as much as the core game when it came out. No expansion has ever cost a small fraction of the core game.

How many have you played?

Because you’re wrong. Take for example SWTOR. The expansions are free with a sub and you only have to sub one month to get the expansion. So that’s about 13 bucks.

Also Aion didn’t charge separately for expansions.

So really, it depends on the game and to say that MMOs always charge as much for an expansion is just not true.

Of course for GW2 box sales are more important because they don’t have a subscription model and personally I find that HoT actually improved the game a lot especially with the gliding masteries and elite specs.

Now, I got HoT not too long ago because it was on sale for 20 something bucks. That was a good deal. Maybe they’ll do another deal for X-mas or something I dunno, but for me it was a good buy. I do get that not everybody is as excited about it. The maps in HoT are a bit 50/50 for me. I quite like Verdant Brink and Auric Basin but don’t like the other ones. The LS3 areas are pretty cool though.

While I agree with you that not all MMO expansions are as much as the core game, most of them certainly are, and SWToR particularly is a bad example, because their optional subscription is only optional if you’re playing through the story line and doing nothing else.

I don’t really know anyone that plays that’s half-serious about SWToR that doesn’t subscribe, but I do know a few people who tried to play it for free after max level and gave up because they refused to pay.

The so-called optional subscription isn’t really all that optional for most people that I know anyway. So yes, they have a game where most people that play it regularly subscribe, they can certainly afford to give subs away.

Aion is a different story altogether, it’s a much older game. Older games after come down in price or give things away at some point, just because it is an older game. If enough people are vested on it, you can sell stuff in the cash shop that is pretty much must have that will cover the cost.

But most MMOs do charge as much for their expansion, and two top MMOs, WOW and FFXIV have both a sub and a charge for a subscription.

Yes, the post you replied to was factually wrong, but there’s certainly a large precedent for charging this much within the genre.

The game went on sale for $25 just recently. I gifted it to a couple of friends and now we have a small group doing the harder achieves together once in a while.

If you can’t scrape together $25 how the kitten do you have the money for internet and a computer??

Vayne.8563:

Yes, the post you replied to was factually wrong, but there’s certainly a large precedent for charging this much within the genre.

True to a point but there is not a precedent for “You’ll get your moneys worth in a year or two…”
I have no experience with SWToR but another current MMO (ESO) has a model that works a lot like Anets B2P model, with the added option of a subscription (that basically translates to a monthly 800 gem purchase + a few other bonuses)
Currently they have 5 (aptly named) DLC-Packs, with “Orsinium” alone putting HoT to shame purely based on content/story.
The price of all 5 content packs is currently less than the HoT DLC pack. (At least in my outback of this planet)

While there may have been a precedent, that is not an excuse to expect a premium price for a product that is just ok. (Talking about HoT from release and 1 year out – The convoluted “value” of what may or may not show up in LS simply won’t work with the next GW2 DLC. – I prefer the “pay ~$10 now and get all THIS” in ESO)

Halandir.3609:

Vayne.8563:

Yes, the post you replied to was factually wrong, but there’s certainly a large precedent for charging this much within the genre.

True to a point but there is not a precedent for “You’ll get your moneys worth in a year or two…”
I have no experience with SWToR but another current MMO (ESO) has a model that works a lot like Anets B2P model, with the added option of a subscription (that basically translates to a monthly 800 gem purchase + a few other bonuses)
Currently they have 5 (aptly named) DLC-Packs, with “Orsinium” alone putting HoT to shame purely based on content/story.
The price of all 5 content packs is currently less than the HoT DLC pack. (At least in my outback of this planet)

While there may have been a precedent, that is not an excuse to expect a premium price for a product that is just ok. (Talking about HoT from release and 1 year out – The convoluted “value” of what may or may not show up in LS simply won’t work with the next GW2 DLC. – I prefer the “pay ~$10 now and get all THIS” in ESO)

HoT literally rewrote the game, though. It’s not all about content. HoT solved a lot of problems and added a lot of things that were previously lacking. If content were the only barometer to whether or not something was good, you’d have a point. But the addition of something like gliding, which fundamentally changed the game for a lot of people, elite specializations for every single profession and masteries themselves have changes the way pretty much everything in Guild Wars 2 works..and now extensive changes being made to WvW.

No, I think the price was fair for what we got. It just doesn’t look that way if you only look at content. I don’t. I look at the whole enchilada.

Propably won’t be for a while because it was on a 50% discount just this summer.
you might try online key store if the GW2 main store is too expensive for you.
HOT will propably also be discounted or core-included when the second expantion hits

Donari.5237:

HoT will be included in the next expansion, however.

Are you certain about that? I haven’t seen any official talk about the next expansion and how HoT will relate to it. I could easily see all of Maguuma being locked to people who only buy the next expansion, and strangely, I don’t have a problem with that. The core game is being bundled, because that’s the base leveling method of the game, and having to buy both the core and the expansion separately is annoying. However, expansion 2 will be going elsewhere in Tyria, not requiring us to walk through the Maguuma (unless something really weird happens in the story). So don’t start assuming TOO much before we have more information, either empirically or extrapolated.

Rognik.2579:

Donari.5237:

HoT will be included in the next expansion, however.

Are you certain about that?

“In the future, if we release further Guild Wars 2 expansions, we plan to offer all of the prior expansions, the core game, and the latest expansion for one single purchase price.”

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/pre-purchase-community-address/

After that, they made the core game F2P however, which makes it easier to justify the bundled price. Considering HoT was designed for active maps, I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up doing the same. However, considering they gave away season 3 also, that would mean the game would be entirely free for those who played an expansion behind, so HoT probably won’t go F2P, at least not until the expansion after. It might not go F2P at all, but then it’d be as dead as the mid-tier zones, where then something as simple as map completion would require guild support due to the foolish mistake in making in group content.

Because of this model however, it’s safe to assume that the closer it gets, the less sales there will be. There could be a sale, but that would mean having to offer refunds, whereas if they keep it at $50, they can simply upgrade those purchases. If they can do it in a way where refunds don’t cost them however, that would likely be the better option, as they can get people to buy the sale who might not have otherwise purchased it at all.

Why would they have to offer refunds?

Yesterday I saw HoT for 10 euro in a store called Media Markt. So for anyone in Holland go and buy it if you haven’t already.

You would have paid 100 dollars in total for a game that gave you 4 years of constant upgrades, a huge world, interesting stories, dungeons, fractals, raids, guild stuff, wvw, pvp, jumping puzzles.. something people spend 1000ends of hours on and still don’t get bored. Most similar games have a subscription fee and after 4 years you would have paid close to 1000 dollars for it, most games from other genres cost 50 dollars and give you an average of 8 hours of playtime. I understand, if someone thinks 50 dollars is a lot for an “expansion” if you haven’t seen the new content (story, raids, new maps are huge and multi-leveled, no comparison to other maps, new class, new legendaries, new elite class-upgrades, new wvw map, etc.) but for this game it really isn’t. It’s 50 dollars for a new game and more stuff is still to come.

In my country if you go and eat out you pay 100 dollars for 3 people (wine not included) for one evening and one meal. GW2 is a lot of evenings, but then again I am still hungry for more…

3 or 4 years from now.